Mother Mary said at Fatima: "My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the sure way which will lead you to God." St. Thomas Aquinas said: "The things we love tell us who we are!" With that in mind, I will try to post each day something about Our Blessed Lady, items about the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and public domain Catholic books too! I pray you enjoy my ministry!
Below are two albums of pictures that I created:
1. Our grand daughter Adrianna.
2. Tears of Mary!

MARY, OUR MOTHER

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The Trial of Father MacRae: A Conspiracy of Fraud

For Catholic priests, merely being accused is now evidence of
guilt. A closer look at the prosecution of Fr Gordon MacRae opens a
window onto a grave injustice.Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part guest post by Ryan A. MacDonald.

“Those aware of the facts of this case find it hard to
imagine that any court today would ignore the perversion of justice it
represents.” (Dorothy Rabinowitz, The Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2013)

The above quote says it all. I wrote for These Stone Walls
two weeks ago to announce a new federal appeal filed in the Father
Gordon MacRae case. I mentioned my hope to write in more detail about
the perversion of justice cited by Dorothy Rabinowitz in “The Trials of Father MacRae,” her third major article on the MacRae case in The Wall Street Journal.The details of how such injustice is perpetrated are especially
important in cases like Father MacRae’s because there was no evidence of
guilt – not one scintilla of evidence – presented to the jury in his
1994 trial. I recently wrote “Justice and a Priest’s Right of Defense in the Diocese of Manchester,”
an article with photographs of the exact location where the charges
against this priest were claimed to have occurred. If you read it, you
can judge for yourself whether those charges were even plausible.The sexual assaults for which Father Gordon MacRae has served two
decades in prison were to have taken place five times in as many weeks,
all in the light of day in one of the busiest places in downtown Keene,
New Hampshire. Yet no one saw anything. No one heard anything. Accuser
Thomas Grover – almost age 16 when he says it happened, and age 26 when
he first accused the priest – testified that he returned from week to
week after each assault because he repressed the memory of it all while
having a weekly “out- of- body experience.”The complete absence of evidence in the case might have posed a
challenge for the prosecution if not for a pervasive climate of
accusation, suspicion, and greed. It was the climate alone that
convicted this priest, that and a press release from the Diocese of
Manchester that declared him guilty before his trial commenced. As
Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote,

“Diocesan officials had evidently found it inconvenient to dally while due process took its course.”

It was 1994, the onset of fear and loathing when many New England
priests were accused, when the news media focused its sights on Catholic
scandal, when lawyers and insurance companies for bishops and dioceses
urged as much distance as possible from the accused while quiet
settlements mediated from behind closed doors doled out millions to
accusers and their lawyers. Accusation alone became all the evidence
needed to convict a priest, and in Keene, New Hampshire – according to
some who were in their teens and twenties then – word got out that
accusing a priest was like winning the lottery.The fact that little Keene, NH – a town of about 22,000 in 1994 –
had a full time sex crimes detective on its police force of 30 brought
an eager ace crusader into the deck stacking against Gordon MacRae. By
the time of the 1994 trial, Detective James F. McLaughlin boasted of
having found more than 1,000 victims of sexual abuse in 750 cases in
Keene. The concept that someone might be falsely accused escaped him
completely. He reportedly once told Father MacRae, “I have to believe my
victims.” This priest WAS one of his victims.The only “hard evidence” placed before the MacRae jury was a
document proving that he is in fact an ordained Catholic priest. The
prosecution was aided much by an outrageous statement from Judge Arthur
Brennan instructing jurors to disregard inconsistencies in Thomas
Grover’s testimony. This is no exaggeration. As Dorothy Rabinowitz
wrote, those jurors “had much to disregard.”It is important to unravel the facts of this prosecution, not all
of which could appear in the current appeal briefs. I have done some of
this unraveling in an article entitled, “In the Fr Gordon MacRae Case, Whack-A-Mole Justice Holds Court.”
I consider it an important article because it addresses head-on many of
the distortions put forth by those committed to keeping the momentum
against priests and the Church going. This is a lucrative business,
after all. Most importantly, that article exposes the “serial victims”
behind MacRae’s prosecution.SEDUCED AND BETRAYEDHad I been a member of the jury that convicted Father MacRae, I
would no doubt feel betrayed today to learn that Thomas Grover, a sole
accuser at trial, accused so many men of sexual abuse “that he appeared
to be going for some sort of sexual abuse victim world record” according
to Grover’s counselor, Ms. Debbie Collett. That fact was kept from the
jury, and if any one was seduced in this case, it was the jurors
themselves.Ms. Collett reports today that Grover accused many – including his
adoptive father – during therapy sessions with her in the late 1980s,
but never accused MacRae. Ms. Collett also reports today that she was
herself “badgered, coerced, and threatened” by Detective McLaughlin and
another Keene police officer into altering her testimony and withholding
the truth about Thomas Grover’s other past abuse claims from the jury.
If the justice system does not take seriously her statement about
pre-trial coercion, it undermines the very foundations of due process.I subscribe to The Wall Street Journal’s weekly “Law Blog” entries
in its online edition. A recent posting was by a high-profile corporate
lawyer who occasionally undertakes appeals for wrongfully convicted
criminal defendants. After winning the freedom of one unjustly
imprisoned man who served 15 years in prison for a crime he did not
commit, the lawyer wrote that justice has a greater hope of prevailing
in such a case when a layman with no training in the law can read the
legal briefs in an appeal and conclude beyond a doubt that an injustice
has indeed taken place.This was exactly my reaction after reading Attorney Robert Rosenthal’s federal appeal brief filed on behalf of Father MacRae.
I have heard of similar reactions from others. One reader recently
wrote, “I just read the appeal brief and I’m stunned! How was this man
ever convicted in a US court of law?” Another reader wrote, “Taken as a
whole, the MacRae trial was a serious breach of American justice and
decency. Had I been a juror, I would today feel betrayed and angry by
what I have just learned.”A few weeks ago in his post on These Stone Walls, Father MacRae wrote of how justice itself was a victim in the prosecution of Monsignor William Lynn in a Philadelphia courtroom.
That conviction was recently reversed by an appeals court in a ruling
that described that trial and conviction as “fundamentally flawed.” In
his appeal of Father MacRae’s trial, Attorney Robert Rosenthal has
masterfully demonstrated the fundamental flaws that brought about the
prosecution of MacRae and the verdict that sent him to prison. Taken as a
whole, no competent person could conclude from those pleadings that the
conviction against this priest should stand.PSYCHOTHERAPIST FOR THE PROSECUTIONI would like to seize upon a few of the details, and magnify them
to demonstrate just how very flawed this trial was. I’ll begin with some
excerpts from a document I recently obtained in this case. It is a
letter written by an observer at Father MacRae’s 1994 trial.The letter, dated October 30, 2013, was addressed to retired judge
Arthur Brennan who presided over the trial of Father MacRae and who
sentenced him to a prison term of 67 years. The letter was written by a
man whose career was in the news media, a fact that very much influenced
his attention to detail throughout the trial of Father MacRae. The
letter writer expressed to the retired judge that he held his pen for so
many years, but now that state courts are no longer involved in this
appeal, he felt more free to write. Here is a portion of that letter:

“We saw something in your courtroom during the MacRae
trial that I don’t think you ever saw. My wife nudged me and pointed to a
woman, Ms. Pauline Goupil, who was engaged in what appeared to be clear
witness tampering. During questioning by the defense attorney, Thomas
Grover seemed to feel trapped a few times. On some of those occasions,
we witnessed Pauline Goupil make a distinct sad expression with a
downturned mouth and gesturing her finger from the corner of her eye
down her cheek at which point Mr. Grover would begin to cry and sob.”
(Letter to retired judge Arthur Brennan, October 30, 2013)

The witness tampering appears to have been premeditated, not
spontaneous. When defense lawyer Ron Koch, a rather large man, stood to
cross examine accuser Thomas Grover at the MacRae trial, Grover turned
to Judge Brennan to protest. He complained that the lawyer was asking
his questions while standing by the defense table where Defendant MacRae
was seated. “I don’t want to have to look at him,” Grover protested.
Judge Arthur Brennan – in apparent disregard of the Constitutional right
of defendants to face their accusers – instructed the defense lawyer to
remove himself to the farthest point in the courtroom away from MacRae
to cross examine Grover.The fix was in. The real issue had been that defense lawyer Ron
Koch was blocking Grover’s view of Pauline Goupil, a psychotherapist
hired at the behest of Grover’s contingency lawyer who, by the time of
this trial, was well into plans for a law suit against the Diocese of
Manchester. I wrote of Pauline Goupil’s role in this trial in an article
for the Daily Estimate, “Psychotherapists Send an Innocent Priest to Prison.”The effect of asking his questions from far across the courtroom
was that the eyes of the court, and the jury, ping-ponged between the
lawyer and Grover. Most did not notice Grover’s pleading glances to Ms.
Goupil and her dramatic gestures from the back of the court coaching him
to cry when questions hit too close to an inconvenient truth. As the
trial observer wrote to Judge Brennan:

“I have been troubled about this for all these years. I
know what I saw, and what I saw was clearly an attempt to dupe the
court and the jury. If the sobbing and crying was not truthful, then I
cannot help but wonder what else was not truthful on the part of Mr.
Grover. If he was really a victim who wanted to tell the simple truth,
why was it necessary for him and Ms. Goupil to have what clearly
appeared to be a set of prearranged signals to alter his testimony? The
jury was privy to none of this, to the best of my knowledge.” (Letter to
retired judge Arthur Brennan, October 30, 2013)

Pauline Goupil was called under oath to the witness stand in the
1994 trial where she produced a bare bones treatment file of Thomas
Grover that contained little, if any, information about claims against
Father MacRae. She stated under oath that this was her entire file.Two years later, Ms. Goupil testified in an evidentiary hearing
about the law suits brought by Thomas Grover and three of his brothers
against Father MacRae and the Diocese of Manchester. Under oath in that
hearing, Pauline Goupil referenced an extensive file with many notations
about claims against Father MacRae and about how she helped Thomas
Grover to “remember” the details of his claims. In one of these two
testimonies under oath – or perhaps in both – Pauline Goupil appears to
have committed perjury.In a brief, defensive hand-written reply to the above letter from
the unnamed trial observer, retired Judge Brennan referred to the
testimony of “young Thomas Grover” at the MacRae trial. This spoke
volumes about that judge’s view of this case. The “young Thomas Grover”
on the witness stand in Judge Brennan’s court was a 5’ 11” 220-lb.,
27-year-old man with a criminal record of assault, forgery, drug,
burglary, and theft charges. Prior to the trial, he was charged with
beating his ex-wife. “He broke my nose,” she says today. The charge was
dropped after MacRae’s trial. Once again, from the observer’s letter to
the retired judge:

“Secondly, I was struck by the difference in Thomas
Grover’s demeanor on the witness stand in your court and his demeanor
just moments before and after outside the courtroom. On the stand he
wept and appeared to be a vulnerable victim. Moments later, during court
recess, in the parking lot he was loud, boisterous and aggressive. One
time he even confronted me in a threatening attempt to alter my own
testimony during sentencing.” (Letter to retired Judge Brennan, October
30, 2013)

And lest we forget, the sentence of 67 years was imposed by Judge
Arthur Brennan after Father MacRae three times refused a prosecution
plea deal to serve only one to three years in exchange for an admission
of guilt. It is one of the ironic challenges to justice in this case
that had Father MacRae been actually guilty, he would have been released
from prison 17 years ago.Like others involved in this trial, Ms. Pauline Goupil was
contacted by retired FBI Special Agent James Abbott who conducted an
investigation of the case over the last few years. Ms. Goupil refused to
be interviewed or to answer any questions.Thomas Grover, today taking refuge on a Native American
reservation in Arizona, also refused to answer questions when found by
Investigator James Abbott. He reportedly did not present as someone
victimized by a parish priest, but rather as someone caught in a
monumental lie. “I want a lawyer!” was all he would say. We all watch
TV’s “Law and Order.” We all know what “I want a lawyer” means.Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 of a two-part guest post by Ryan A. MacDonald. Part 2 will appear next week on These Stone Walls. Please also consult Ryan MacDonald’s recent post, “News Alert: Federal Appeal Filed in Fr Gordon MacRae’s Case.”
Thanks to TSW readers for their generosity in responding to Ryan
MacDonald’s appeal to help with the legal costs, at the Federal level.
We haven’t reached our goal yet, so please share this link to Ryan’s news alert post!

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THANKS TO ALL WHO DONATED! YOU WILL ALWAYS BE IN MY DAILY PRAYERS!

My wife Marianne suffered a heart attack on March 13th, 2012. On 7/23/2013, she suffered a stroke and was hospitalized for over 3 weeks. On 8/9/2013, Marianne went to the Lord. May she rest in Peace+Deacon John

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Quotes from 'The Glories of Mary':

‘I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head.’

(Gen. 3:15)

“Since the devil is the head of original sin, this head it was that Mary crushed: for sin never had any entry into the soul of this Blessed Virgin, which was consequently free from all stain.”

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MARY, OUR MOTHER

Mother Mary said at Fatima: "My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the sure way which will lead you to God." With that in mind, I will try to post each day something about Our Blessed Lady, items about the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and public domain Catholic books too! I pray you enjoy my ministry!Below is a slide show of pictures that I have collected: Tears of Mary!

Have a look!

Jeremiah 14:17; 15:18

"Let my eyes shed down tears night and day, and let them not cease, because the Virgin daughter of my people is afflicted with an exceedingly grievous evil. / Why is my sorrow become perpetual, and my wound desperate so as to refuse to be healed?"

Ubi Petrus, ibi ecclesia, et ubi ecclesia vita eterna

Where Peter is, there is the Church, where the Church is there is Eternal Life

About Me

I'm 80, formally married to Marianne for 52 years, [Marianne passed away to the Lord on August 9th, 2013 after suffering a stroke and two cardiac arrests.] We have 4 children (plus 2 in heaven-stillborn) and nine grandchildren plus 1 Step-grandchild. I'm a Korean War Vet, U.S. Navy; I was a Motorcycle News Courier for U.P.I., and WNEW Chanel 5 TV News, during 60's & 70's; a Lieutenant in the Wycoff Hospital Police in the 90's. I was ordained a Permanent Deacon for the Brooklyn Diocese on April 25, 1987 and served in four parishes before relocating to Florida in 2002. I'm still incardinated for Brooklyn Diocese. There was no parish in my town so we traveled to either Mt. Dora or Eustis for Mass. My oldest son and daughter, John and Anne, lived near us but the rest of the gang are up North in New York and Pennsylvania. We have now relocated to a northern state and my ministry is mostly on the Internet with some blogs and groups. I also assist the pastor at the local Catholic church. I owe my life and conversion/calling to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel de Garabandal, who has brought me to her Son Jesus. I am Their servant and slave! I only want to do the Will of God and glorify the Most Blessed Trinity with my life!

My Friend Archbishop David Milne

PSALM 71 SPEAKS TO MY HEART

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;let me never be put to shame!In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;incline your ear to me, and save me!

Be to me a rock of refuge,to which I may continually come;you have given the command to save me,for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man.For you, O Lord, are my hope,my trust, O Lord, from my youth.Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;you are he who took me from my mother's womb.My praise is continually of you.

I have been as a portent to many,but you are my strong refuge.My mouth is filled with your praise,and with your glory all the day.Do not cast me off in the time of old age;forsake me not when my strength is spent.

For my enemies speak concerning me;those who watch for my life consult togetherand say, “God has forsaken him;pursue and seize him,for there is none to deliver him.”

O God, be not far from me;O my God, make haste to help me!May my accusers be put to shame and consumed;with scorn and disgrace may they be coveredwho seek my hurt.

But I will hope continuallyand will praise you yet more and more.My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,of your deeds of salvation all the day,for their number is past my knowledge.

With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come;I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs,O God, do not forsake me,until I proclaim your might to another generation,your power to all those to come.Your righteousness, O God,reaches the high heavens.You who have done great things,O God, who is like you?

You who have made me see many troubles and calamitieswill revive me again;from the depths of the earthyou will bring me up again.You will increase my greatnessand comfort me again.

I will also praise you with the harpfor your faithfulness, O my God;I will sing praises to you with the lyre,O Holy One of Israel.My lips will shout for joy,when I sing praises to you;my soul also, which you have redeemed.

And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointedwho sought to do me hurt.

Welcome to my Marian Blog

As you can tell from my postings, I'm in love with Mother Mary, who has taken me under her mantle of protection, has taught and led me to Her Divine Son, Jesus; Who in turn has led me, in the Holy Spirit, to the Eternal Father! Two prayers that I say often tell who I am:Come O Holy Spirit; Come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Your well-beloved Spouse.

O Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee. My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament.